Financial manager charged with wire fraud

The former office of the Getty Group at 5 S. Adams St. (Photo by Michael Schwartz)

A Richmond businessman is facing federal criminal charges in Charlottesville after allegedly mishandling the finances of his celebrity client.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office last week charged Getty Andrew Rothenberg with one count of wire fraud related to the alleged skimming of almost $200,000 from a client’s personal accounts.

The charges were filed in the Charlottesville Division of the U.S. District Court and stem from Rothenberg’s work as a financial manager for Boyd Tinsley, a well-known violinist and member of the Dave Matthews Band.

Federal court documents list the victim only as an Albemarle County resident identified as “CBT.”

According to a source with knowledge of the case, CBT is Tinsley. Past news reports confirm that Rothenberg managed Tinsley’s affairs.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said it could neither confirm nor deny the identity of the victim.

Tinsley grew up in Charlottesville, along with several other members of the Dave Matthews Band. He attended the University of Virginia and hosts an annual tennis tournament in the city.

Rothenberg is scheduled to plead guilty July 23 at a hearing in Charlottesville, according to court records. He waived his right to an indictment and was charged via the criminal information process, which does not require an arrest or a grand jury indictment.

He was released on a personal recognizance bond.

Click the image above to read the charges [PDF]

A message left for Rothenberg at a number listed as his residence in Richmond was not returned.

For his services, Rothenberg was initially paid $50,000 a year, according to court documents. That was eventually increased to $60,000 annually.

Rothenberg’s scheme to defraud his client, the U.S. Attorney alleges, began in 2009 and continued until at least 2012.

It involved allegedly inflating the amounts due on Tinsley’s bills, “the excess of which was then converted for his own personal use,” the case states. Rothenberg had access to Tinsley’s bank accounts and lines of credit, according to the case.

The U.S. Attorney cites 19 transactions in which Rothenberg requested $479,000 from Tinsley. Of those, $192,000 worth of requests were fraudulent and for Rothenberg’s personal use, the case claims.

Rothenberg’s firm the Getty Group previously kept an office on South Adams Street. A phone number listed for the Getty Group is disconnected.

One Comment »

This is what pisses me off about these types of people in my industry. The guy had a great client and probably could have acquired more great clients through referrals from Tinsley, generating more business income for years to come – more than the $200k that he stole from his client.
And then he blows it because he got greedy.
Idiot!